Marlins five homers fell Phillies

Sep 2, 2007 - 9:55 PM
MIAMI (Ticker) -- The Florida Marlins tied a franchise-record
with five homers - including back-to-back blasts off Kane Davis
- then survived a bases-loaded rally in the ninth inning for a
7-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday.

After Philadelphia starter Adam Eaton labored through six
innings, Davis started the seventh and promptly surrendered a
solo home run to Hanley Ramirez that gave Florida a 6-5 lead.
The next batter, Dan Uggla, followed suit by belting his 28th of
the season.

Carlos Ruiz's run-scoring single in the ninth cut the deficit to
one, but reliever Kevin Gregg got Jimmy Rollins to fly out to
center with the bases loaded for his 28th save.

"I'm not stretching it out because I want to be a starter,"
joked Gregg, who threw 43 pitches in the ninth. "I knew it
wasn't going to be easy, but I knew I had it. It was just a
matter of when it was going to happen."

Justin Miller (5-0) allowed one hit and struck out two in 1 1/3
innings to pick up the win for Florida.

Davis (0-1) allowed the two runs on three hits for Philadelphia
(72-64), which fell to four games behind New York (76-60) in the
National League East. The Mets completed their three-game
sweep of the Braves with a 3-2 victory on Sunday.

Cody Ross added two homers and Miguel Cabrera added his 31st of
the season for Florida, which also had five homers on September
11, 2006 against the New York Mets.

"The last few weeks, it's seemed like we're down 5-0, 6-0 after
the first few innings," Ross said. "To keep the fight ...
especially against the Phillies, a team that's dominated us all
year, to do it to them now when they're needing this victory as
bad as anybody - it's a big win for us.'"

The end of the game was a far cry from how it began.

Philadelphia jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead in the third inning.
Ryan Howard's single plated Rollins, who tripled to lead off
the frame. After Aaron Rowand's double scored Pat Burrell,
Jayson Werth upped the ante with a two-run double of his own.

Eaton became the first Phillies pitcher to homer this season
with a solo shot in the fourth. It was also the third of
Eaton's career and first since May 26, 2003.

It fell apart for Philadelphia shortly thereafter.

A solo homer by Cabrera and a two-run shot by Ross cut
Philadelphia's lead to 5-3 in the fourth inning.

In the fifth, Howard misplayed a routine grounder at first base,
allowing pinch hitter Dontrelle Willis to score. Ross added
his second homer of the day and 10th of the season to tie the
game in the sixth.

"I just made some bad pitches there in the fourth inning," Eaton
said. "When I didn't make good pitches, they ended up hitting
them."

Eaton finished the inning before giving way to a beleaguered
Phillies bullpen, which used four relievers in Florida's 12-6
victory on Saturday.

"It was a fun game to be a part of," Ross said. "When Hanley
hit that home run and Uggla came up behind him and did it, it
was a great feeling to be on the other end of it."

Despite winning by the long ball, Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez
cautioned that his team can't afford to count on doing so.

"You can't play softball games in professional baseball,"
Gonzalez said.

The Phillies had come to Miami on a high after sweeping four
games from the Mets at home.

"There was a big difference as far as the atmosphere goes, but
at the same time we haven't held anybody the last two nights,"
Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "They beat us. We got
outplayed today. Five home runs and they were good ones. There
were no cheapies."

Especially not for Uggla, who upped his season-best 27 homers of
last year. He is just the second player in history to hit 25
or more homers in his first two seasons, while playing 100 games
or more at second base.

"It feels great," Uggla said of his blast. "After Hanley hit
his, I just wanted to go up and put pressure on him (Davis).
I'm taking better swings, and it showed."

NLAT FLORIDA - SCORING UPDATETWO-RUN HOME RUN BY CODY ROSS (9) TO RIGHT WITH 1 OUT IN THE 4TH OFF ADAM EATON SCORED MIKE JACOBS.CURRENT SCORE: PHILADELPHIA 5, FLORIDA 3DUE UP FOR FLORIDA: M OLIVO (.237, 0-FOR-1)